Johura Begum, pictured in a head scarf rather than a burkha at a previous court appearance, has already been jailed for eight months for her part in the fraud which her husband was also jailed for today

A curry house owner who falsely claimed £41,000 in benefits - which his burkha-wearing wife spent on designer clothing - has been jailed for 15 months.

Mohammed Chowdhury, 33, claimed he only earned £40 a week as a restaurant waiter despite running a thriving business in Colchester, Essex with a turnover of £400,000 a year.

He also pocketed housing and council tax benefit after failing to tell authorities his home was rented from his mother-in-law.

Chowdhury’s partner, mother-of-two Johura Begum, 32, spent £13,000 of the cash on clothing at Burberry and Reiss, £1,200 on bedroom furniture and £130 a time on regular trips to the hairdresser, London's Old Bailey heard.

Begum, who claimed she could not work because of injuries she suffered in a car accident, has already been jailed for eight months for her part in the fraud.

Chowdhury, who spent the rest of the money on his drug habit, failed to turn up to court for his sentencing hearing today.

Judge Richard Marks QC sentenced him in his absence because of his repeated breaches of bail.

The judge said: ‘An amount of greed appears to have motivated these offences.

‘Given he has a longstanding addiction to class A drugs I am driven to the conclusion that, of the two of them, he was far and away the most culpable and was unquestionably the initiator of the offences.’